pomegranate

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “pomegranate” in English was translated in the 1900 Kalaallisut (Greenlandic) translation (a newer version was published in 2000) as kingmernarssûp or “big lingonberry.” “The Greenlandic word kingmernarssûp (modern kimmernarsuup) derives from kingmernaĸ (modern kimmernaq) ‘lingonberry’ (Vaccinium vitis-idaea ). The lingonberry is the fruit of a shrub from the heath family which is native to the boreal forest and tundra in the Arctic regions of North America, Europe, and Siberia, including western and southern Greenland. The term for ‘lingonberry’ has been modified with the suffix –ssuaĸ (modern –suaq ‘big’), resulting in a descriptive term meaning ‘big lingonberry.’ (Modern Greenlandic uses the Danish loanword granatæble.)” (Source: Lily Kahn & Riitta-Liisa Valijärvi in The Bible Translator 2019, p. 125ff.)

 

The pomegranate Punica granatum has been grown from ancient times across the Middle East over to Iran and into northern India. It is widely cultivated throughout India and the drier parts of Southeast Asia, Malaya, the East Indies, and tropical Africa. Pomegranates are now found throughout the warm parts of southern Europe and across North Africa and Asia all the way to Nepal. Images of pomegranate fruits have been found in Pharaoh’s temple in Karnak, Egypt, dating from around 1480 B.C. In classical Latin the species name was malum punium (apple of Puni) or malum granatum (seedy apple). This has influenced the common name for pomegranate in many languages (for example, German Granatapfel, “seed apple”). The English word “pomegranate” itself comes from Latin pomum (fruit, apple) via Old French. The Arabic rummân (رمان) passed into some other languages, including Portuguese romã.

The pomegranate is a small tree, growing to about 3-5 meters (10-17 feet) tall, with narrow, dark green leaves and many thorny branches. It has a lovely red flower. The fruit is a bit smaller than an orange and has a hard skin, which must be cut open to get at the tightly-packed pockets of seeds inside, each seed enclosed in a little bag of juicy pulp. The end of the fruit has a distinctive flower-like shape. The hard skin, which turns from green to red as it ripens, is used as a tanning agent, for medicine, and for ink. The seeds were sometimes made into wine. Pomegranate trees live up to two hundred years.

The pomegranate was one of the seven “special” foods mentioned in Deuteronomy 8:8 that the Israelites would find in Canaan. The fruit was one of several brought back to the camp of the Israelites by the men who scouted out Canaan (Numbers 13:23). In Song of Songs 4:3 the bride of the king is said to have cheeks like halves of a pomegranate, a reference, probably, to their red color. The flower-shaped end of the pomegranate fruit made it an attractive decoration, for example on the fringe of the priests’ robes (Exodus 28:33f. and on the columns and furniture of the Temple (2 Kings 25:17).

In Jewish tradition the pomegranate stands for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 commands of the Torah. For this reason and others many Jews eat pomegranates on the Jewish New Year Festival (Rosh Hashanah). Jewish tradition also holds that the pointed calyx of the pomegranate is the original “design” for a royal crown.
The Babylonians believed chewing pomegranate seeds before battle made them invincible. The Qur’an mentions pomegranates three times, twice as examples of the good things God creates, once as a fruit found in the Garden of Paradise.

The pomegranate is only recently being grown outside of the Mediterranean area. In West Africa it has not yet become a popular fruit. Where it is known at all, it is called rummân (from Arabic). In Song 4.3 and 6.7 the refer-ences to the pomegranate are rhetorical. There a cultural equivalent representing redness or beauty could be used. Elsewhere in the Bible transliteration is advised, following a major language. The word pome simply means “fruit,” so the basic word to transliterate from is granate (compare granada in Spanish). A possible expression is “garinada fruit.” The Latin phrase Punica granatum for pomegranate means the “grenade” of Punica (= Carthage), a city in present-day Tunisia. The Latin word granatum means “filled with many grains or seeds.” Reflecting this, Bambara of Guinea uses “karanati fruit.” One could also use the Hebrew rimmon as a base. Areas influenced by Arabic may find a word like rummân, for example, roomaanoo in Mandinka. A footnote could describe the fruit as similar to a guava, red and seedy.

Although the pomegranate has been introduced recently throughout Africa, it is not well-known, so the name will most likely need to be transliterated. As the English name is quite long, the translator is advised to translate from another source or look for ways to shorten it, such as “granata fruit.”

Pomegranate, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

drink

In Telugu different verbs for humans drinking (tāgu / తాగు) and animals drinking (cēḍu / చేడు) are required.

complete verse (Song of Solomon 8:2)

Following are a number of back-translations as well as a sample translation for translators of Song of Solomon 8:2:

  • Kupsabiny: “And/or I would take you to our home,
    so that I could be doing like my mother taught me.
    Then I would give you good wine
    that is well prepared/ripe for you to drink.” (Source: Kupsabiny Back Translation)
  • Newari: “I would bring you to my mother’s house.
    to her who taught me.
    I would give you wine with spices
    and pomegranate juice to drink.” (Source: Newari Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “I would-take you (sing.) to the house of my mother, and there you (sing.) could-teach me about love. I would -let- you (sing.) -drink fragrant/spicy wine from the juice/(nectar) of my pomegranate fruit(s).” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “No one would object if I led you to my mother’s house,
    to where my mother, who taught me many things, lives.
    I would like to take you to my mother’s house because I would like to make love to you ,
    and that would be as delightful as juice squeezed from pomegranates.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

king

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Some languages do not have a concept of kingship and therefore no immediate equivalent for the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin that is translated as “king” in English. Here are some (back-) translations:

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  • Piro: “a great one”
  • Highland Totonac: “the big boss”
  • Huichol: “the one who commanded” (source for this and above: Bratcher / Nida)
  • Ekari: “the one who holds the country” (source: Reiling / Swellengrebel)
  • Una: weik sienyi: “big headman” (source: Kroneman 2004, p. 407)
  • Pass Valley Yali: “Big Man” (source: Daud Soesilo)
  • Ninia Yali: “big brother with the uplifted name” (source: Daud Soesilio in Noss 2007, p. 175)
  • Nyamwezi: mutemi: generic word for ruler, by specifying the city or nation it becomes clear what kind of ruler (source: Pioneer Bible Translators, project-specific translation notes in Paratext)
  • Ghomála’: Fo (“The word Fo refers to the paramount ruler in the kingdoms of West Cameroon. He holds administrative, political, and religious power over his own people, who are divided into two categories: princes (descendants of royalty) and servants (everyone else).” (Source: Michel Kenmogne in Theologizing in Context: An Example from the Study of a Ghomala’ Christian Hymn))

Faye Edgerton retells how the term in Navajo (Dinė) was determined:

“[This term was] easily expressed in the language of Biblical culture, which had kings and noblemen with their brilliant trappings and their position of honor and praise. But leadership among the Navajos is not accompanied by any such titles or distinctions of dress. Those most respected, especially in earlier days, were their headmen, who were the leaders in raids, and the shaman, who was able to serve the people by appealing for them to the gods, or by exorcising evil spirits. Neither of these made any outward show. Neither held his position by political intrigue or heredity. If the headman failed consistently in raids, he was superceded by a better warrior. If the shaman failed many times in his healing ceremonies, it was considered that he was making mistakes in the chants, or had lost favor with the gods, and another was sought. The term Navajos use for headman is derived from a verb meaning ‘to move the head from side to side as in making an oration.’ The headman must be a good orator, able to move the people to go to war, or to follow him in any important decision. This word is naat’áanii which now means ‘one who rules or bosses.’ It is employed now for a foreman or boss of any kind of labor, as well as for the chairman of the tribal council. So in order to show that the king is not just a common boss but the highest ruler, the word ‘aláahgo, which expresses the superlative degree, was put before naat’áanii, and so ‘aláahgo naat’áanii ‘anyone-more-than-being around-he-moves-his-head-the-one-who’ means ‘the highest ruler.’ Naat’áanii was used for governor as the context usually shows that the person was a ruler of a country or associated with kings.”

(Source: Faye Edgerton in The Bible Translator 1962, p. 25ff. )

See also king (Japanese honorifics).

take / bring (Japanese honorifics)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way to do this is through the usage (or a lack) of an honorific prefix as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

The Hebrew and Greek that is translated as “take” or “bring” in English is translated in the Shinkaiyaku Bible as o-tsure (お連れ), combining “bring” (tsure) with the respectful prefix o-. (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Japanese benefactives (nomasete)

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Like a number of other East Asian languages, Japanese uses a complex system of honorifics, i.e. a system where a number of different levels of politeness are expressed in language via words, word forms or grammatical constructs. These can range from addressing someone or referring to someone with contempt (very informal) to expressing the highest level of reference (as used in addressing or referring to God) or any number of levels in-between. One way Japanese shows different degree of politeness is through the choice of a benefactive construction as shown here in the widely-used Japanese Shinkaiyaku (新改訳) Bible of 2017.

Here, nomasete (飲ませて) or “drink” is used in combination with sashiageru (差し上げる) (“give”), a respectful form of the benefactive ageru (あげる). A benefactive reflects the good will of the giver or the gratitude of a recipient of the favor. To convey this connotation, English translation needs to employ a phrase such as “for me (my sake)” or “for you (your sake).” (Source: S. E. Doi, see also S. E. Doi in Journal of Translation, 18/2022, p. 37ff. )

Translation commentary on Song of Songs 8:2

The young woman continues describing her wish; the next thing she would do if her lover was “like a brother” would be to take him home. In Hebrew culture there would be no barrier to being together. So she thinks it would be wonderful if she could lead and bring him home. In this setting these two verbs have the same meaning and so may be rendered as one verb if necessary. The Hebrew use of two verbs next to each other (literally “I would lead you, I would bring you”) provides emphasis. It is obvious that “brother” is used figuratively here because, if they were actually brother and sister, she would not have to “lead and bring” her brother to her mother’s place, for it would be his home also.

For translation we can say “I could really take you…” or “it would be proper for me to bring you….”

Into the house of my mother: on this phrase see comments at 3.4. When the young woman refers to the house of my mother, it is obvious that she does not think of her lover as a true brother, or she would have said “our mother.” “[To my] home” will translate the phrase meaningfully.

Into the chamber of her that conceived me: as the Revised Standard Version footnote indicates, this phrase is a problem for interpreters and translators. The problem is that instead of conceived the Hebrew here has the verb “teach.” It translates as “you/she will teach me.” However, many scholars suggest that the correct text should be conceived, as in the parallel 3.4. The two possible interpretations are:
into the house of my mother;
she [or, you] will teach me.

Or else:
into the house of my mother,
and into the room of the one who conceived me.

If the Hebrew text actually says “she [or, you] will teach me,” it is difficult to know why the phrase is included here. Is it simply a phrase that describes the role of the mother, much as the phrase “the one nursing at my mother’s breast” describes the brother? If so, we can translate it as “the one who taught [or, teaches] me [everything I know].” However, there is another possible rendering of the Hebrew: “you will teach me.” This can be addressed to the young man, in which case we assume the young man would be teaching her more about love. This latter is the interpretation that many versions and commentators adopt. Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, for example, renders “you will initiate me.” This majority view is certainly a logical possibility.

New American Bible links “teach” with the following phrase and reads “teach me to give you spiced wine.” Such an interpretation seems very forced, however, and should not be followed.

I would give you spiced wine to drink: the combination of wine and spices speaks of the pleasures of lovemaking (1.2; 4.10-14; 5.1). Hebrew drink is similar in sound to the verb “kiss” and so is a play on words, both of them relating to making love. Such a use of words is probably not translatable, but it may be explained in a footnote if it will help readers’ understanding.

On the word wine see comments on 1.2.

The juice of my pomegranates: juice is what is pressed out or squeezed out of a fruit. The full phrase juice of my pomegranates is parallel with the word wine and so is a reference to lovemaking. Though there have been many references to this fruit throughout the Song (4.3; 6.7; 7.12), this is the first time we see the possessive my pomegranates. The phrase links us back to the promises that the young woman made in 7.12-13. So her meaning is clear—she is really offering herself. Some commentators suggest that this is a figurative reference to the young woman’s breasts; however, we take this reference to be more general. To convey this idea we can restate the phrase as “my pomegranate juice” (instead of juice of my pomegranates). Bible en français courant goes one step further; since “pomegranate juice” and “mixed wine” are parallel, they place the possessive “my” before both. This makes it clearer that the young woman is offering herself:

• I would let you taste
my perfumed wine
and my pomegranate juice.

As we noted above, perfumed wine and pomegranate juice are parallel: “I would give you spiced wine, my pomegranate juice to drink.” Another possibility for translation is to render one expression in a more literal way and the second in a freer way. We may say “I would make you taste my perfumed wine, my sweet flowing love.”

Combining verses 1 and 2 we may say:

• I wish you were my brother
from the same family as I
Then, if I met you,
I would kiss you in the open,
And no one would be shocked!
Each time I found you,
I would take you and lead you home,
There you could teach me,
And, there, I would let you taste my love!*
Footnote: * Hebrew: “I would let you drink mixed wine, juice from my pomegranates.”

Or following the text more closely:

• If only you were my brother,
Nursed by the same mother,
Then, if I met you in the street,
I would kiss you
And no one could criticize me.
I would take you and lead you
To my mother’s house—she who taught me [all]—
And I would give you spiced wine to drink,
sweet juice from my own pomegranates.

Quoted with permission from Ogden, Graham S. and Zogbo, Lynell. A Handbook on the Book of Song of Songs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1998. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .